06.26.2019

PrecisionHawk’s Michael Chasen Named CEO of the Year

Triangle Business Journal recently named PrecisionHawk CEO Michael Chasen CEO of the Year!

Chasen was awarded based responses from his peers: other CEOs or top executives in the Triangle.

Chasen joined PrecisionHawk in 2017, adding to a lifelong career in tech.

In 1997, he co-founded the popular e-learning software Blackboard with his former college roommate, leading the company as CEO for 15 years. During his tenure as CEO, Chasen grew the company to over 3,000 employees across 20 international offices, and led it through an initial public offering in 2004, 20 mergers and acquisitions and a sale to a private equity firm in 2011 for $1.7 billion.

After the sale, Chasen started another tech company, SocialRadar, which specialized in mobile location services, which he later sold to Verizon in 2016.

When he received a call from RedHat co-founder and PrecisionHawk investor Bob Young in 2017 asking him to head PrecisionHawk, he jumped at the opportunity.

The Federal Aviation Administration was just starting to allow the commercial use of drones, and Chasen saw the company at the precipice of a hockey stick growth curve.

He was right. Since joining the company as CEO, PrecisionHawk has grown 300 percent.

What does Chasen envision for PrecisionHawk? To become a “multi-billion dollar, maybe even public company - right here in Raleigh.”